Articles by Diana beechener

An inoffensive cartoon that will keep small children quiet for 90 minutes and that might give their parents a few laughs

Koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey: Kubo and the Two Strings) loves theater. He has achieved half of his dream. He owns a theater, but he has no audience.
Facing foreclosure, Buster makes a desperate decision to host a singing competition. To draw local talent, he plans to offer a $1,000 prize. But his secretary types $100,000 by mistake, and soon the whole town turns out to win a fortune.
Surely he can raise the money later, Buster decides, so he holds auditions. A motley crew competes. Johnny (Taron Egerton: Eddie the Eagle) is a softhearted gorilla with a sweet voice who seeks to get away from his criminal father. Ash (Scarlett Johansson: Captain America: Civil War) is a prickly teen porcupine finding her voice as a songwriter. Rosita (Reese Witherspoon: Hot Pursuit) is a housepig worn out by caring for her husband and 25 piglets. Meena (Tori Kelly) is a shy elephant with the voice of an angel but crippling stage fright. Mike (Seth MacFarlane: Family Guy) is a mouse with the voice and attitude of Sinatra.
As the contestants struggle to find their voices, Buster struggles to find funding for his musical spectacular. Will he get the ovation he’s always wanted? Or is this his curtain call?
Sing is the latest in a long line of inoffensive animated films that will keep small children quiet for 90 minutes. There’s nothing special about writing, acting or story, but all are satisfactory. Illumination Studios has settled into making movies — like this and the Minions film — that entertain small viewers while offering adults passable fare. It’s not a bad formula. At my screening, children paid close attention to the singing animals while adults huffed a few laughs.
If you pay attention, you’ll notice two big problems. First is the story. Writer/director Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow) makes Buster’s journey his theme. But we don’t connect with Buster, as he’s a bit of a jerk and McConaughey’s vocal performance is flat. Our hearts are with Johnny, caught in a fraught relationship with his robber father. Instead of his story, we get dozens of B storylines and flatulence jokes.
There’s also too little music for a movie called Sing. What there is — mostly small snippets from popular songs — seems contrived to keep adults entertained.
A DVD of Zootopia or The Secret Life of Pets will cost you less than movie tickets to Sing and give you and your children better stories and cuter animal characters.

The campaign against the Empire is not going well for the rebel alliance. Momentum is building, slowly, but not consensus. Half the alliance wants war; the other thinks senate proceedings and trials better for the galaxy.
Things get worse when scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen: Doctor Strange) sends a secret message reporting that he’s helped build a weapon the Empire calls the Death Star.
It has the power to destroy a planet with a single shot. Such a weapon gives the Empire the upper hand.
Erso reveals that he’s built a hidden weakness into the Death Star to aid the rebels. Erso himself is missing.
The plan is to contact Erso’s daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones: Inferno) to make inroads with her dad’s old friends, now rebel fanatics. Jyn has been searching for her father ever since the Empire kidnapped him, so she leaps at the chance.
Jyn joins rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna: The Bad Batch) to find her father and steal the plans for the Death Star. Cassian, however, is under orders to shoot Galen on sight.
If you’ve ever seen a Star Wars movie, you know how Rogue One ends. But it’s so well done that knowing the ending hardly matters.
Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) gives us breathtaking action, including a harrowing battle on an island. The machinery and tech of the Star Wars universe blend with gritty sequences featuring soldiers and guns to convey the human cost of war.
Another smart choice is staying far away from the Force. This is not a movie about Jedis. It’s about non-magical people who must make real sacrifices for their cause. Grounding this fantasy universe in reality adds consequences to action. A soldier who dies in Rogue One is not joining the Force, just rotting on the ground.
Luna and Jones give charismatic performances that leave you rooting for the rebellion. The real star of the movie, however, is K-2SO (Alan Tudyk: Moana). A reprogrammed Empire droid now working with the rebels, K-2SO is a comedian who steals every scene. Imagine a slightly tougher and more sarcastic C-3PO.
Think twice about bringing the kids to this Star Wars movie. Made for adults who grew up with the original trilogy, this addition to the universe is a darker take than the usually family-friendly fare. People die, war is hell and betrayal is seemingly inevitable.
For fans, it’s a great sci-fi-war experience giving us plenty to talk about while we wait for Episode VIII.

A janitor in Boston, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck: Triple 9), sleepwalks through life. After work, he guzzles beer, preferring bar fights to women.
Though Lee doesn’t seek change, it finds him. His older brother drops dead, leaving a commercial fishing boat, a big house in their hometown and a 16-year-old son. Named guardian of Patrick (Lucas Hedges: Anesthesia), Lee has no idea how to help the boy with his grief or how to parent a teen who’s juggling girlfriends and used to getting his way with caustic sarcasm.
Making Lee’s task harder is his small hometown. Tragedy ruined his marriage and sent him scuttling to Boston. Home again where everyone knows the pain of his past, Lee encounters his own demons.
This moving, funny drama about the power of family and the ways people cope with grief is one of the best films of the year. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (Margaret) picks apart the family dynamics, slowly revealing each member’s past and pain. Each flashback builds the narrative, developing a complex family history.
Dialog is sharp and often quite funny. Lonergan’s knack for dysfunctional families shows in every word Lee or Patrick speak. These caustic men are terrified of their sadness. Their sarcasm and biting judgments are their desperate front.
Affleck carries the movie with a nuanced and deeply personal performance that should make him a contender come awards season. By keeping Lee almost affectless, he shows just how damaged the character is. It’s a dramatic contrast to the Lee in flashbacks, who’s hapless but full of life.
As Lee’s ex-wife, Michelle Williams (Certain Women) also offers a stellar performance. She is his opposite, an open wound of emotion and pain. As she feels so acutely, she can’t understand how Lee shuts himself down. The two work beautifully together in a fascinating, painful dynamic.
Manchester by the Sea will stir you, but it offers no easy answers.

The chances that World War II soldier Max Vatan (Brad Pitt: The Big Short) will survive his next mission are slim. He’ll be assassinating the German ambassador in Casablanca in a very public attack. Working with him is Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard: It’s Only the End of the World), a French resis­tance fighter.
The heat, the adrenaline and their own attractiveness bring Max and Marianne together. After a steamy affair and a successful mission, Max proposes, bringing Marianne to England.
By 1942, Max, Marianne and their small daughter seem to be living happily ever after in London, despite the German blitz. Until Marianne is flagged as a possible German spy.
Now Max must prove her innocent — or execute her — all in 48 hours.
Allied is a spy thriller without the thrills. The main problem is the relationship between Max and Marianne. How can two talented and attractive actors have so little chemistry? Their lack of sexual tension leaves you wondering why Max would marry Marianne, let alone risk treason to prove her innocence.
Pitt’s bizarre acting has him looking stiff and uncomfortable. When he’s not speaking, he strikes a pose and holds it until it’s his turn to talk.
Direction by legendary Robert Zemeckis (The Walk) guarantees that the film will look good. With lush costumes, sweeping camera work and expensive sets, he doesn’t disappoint. But by vacillating between dramatic scenes, harrowing action and broad comedy, he loses control of tone and tension. You watch not knowing if you’re supposed to laugh or be horrified.
Beautiful, it is, but weak on story and acting.

Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho in her screen debut) was born to greatness. Beloved by all, she will be her people’s next chief. She returns their affection and promised to become an excellent leader.
Still, she has a secret love: the ocean.
More than anything, she wants to take a boat and explore the vast expanses of water that surround her island.
But the ocean is forbidden. Not even fishermen are allowed beyond the protective coral reef that surrounds the island. Moana’s father dismisses wanderlust as the musings of a child.
However Gramma Tala (Rachel House: Soul Mates) knows that Moana’s destiny lies in the sea. She tells Moana about the gods and the history of her people, who were great wayfinders, traveling across the ocean to discover new islands. Seeing the spirit of adventure reborn in her granddaughter, Gramma Tala believes her chosen by the water to restore the Heart of the Ocean, a sacred stone stolen by trickster demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson: Ballers).
When the fish dry up and the island suffers, Moana sees it as a sign her Gramma was right. To return the sacred stone before her people die, she takes a small boat and her favorite pet chickento cross the reef in search of Maui and the true Heart of the Ocean.
Spellbindingly beautiful and a lot of fun, Moana is the latest Disney princess movie to break the mold, offering little girls a get-it-done role model. Funny, smart and a hard worker, Moana is determined to save her people. You’ll find no love interest here; this film is all about a girl embracing her role as a leader.
The film also features music from Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has a knack for clever lyrics and tailors each song to fit its singer. So you’ll be tapping your toes while watching this adventure.
As Moana, Cravalho is a great discovery. She infuses the character with spunk, humor and kindness. The vocal star of the movie, however, is Johnson, who fills Maui with such charm and bombast that moviegoers in my screening cheered each time he arrived on screen. Johnson has long been able to command the screen, and this power transfers into animation. He is the closest Disney has come since Aladdin’s Genie to marry the public image of an actor with the character he voices.
Gorgeous songs, great voice acting and a good story all contribute, but none so much as the film’s images. With beautifully rendered scenes on islands and the ocean, several animation styles and the reference point of Polynesian culture, the animators create a fascinating world.
If you’ve got kids, Moana is probably on your calendar. But you don’t need kids to see this movie; it’s a fantastic step for Disney animation in both storytelling and visuals. Stay through the credits for a stinger hilarious to older viewers.

One day, they arrive. Twelve giant pods hover over major countries throughout the world. No one knows where they came from. No one saw them coming. No one knows what they want.
Every few hours, a door opens, allowing humans to enter the spaceships. Then what? The humans are stumped on how to communicate. Figuring it out falls to Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), a trusted linguist who has helped the military translate enemy radio chatter. Her mission: learn the aliens’ language — and develop a system of communication, ASAP.
Banks has a deadline: China and Russia promise military action if the aliens don’t state their purpose or move on. Intergalactic war will end diplomacy.
Complicated and painstakingly filmed, Arrival continues the sci-fi tradition of examining the foibles of human nature in a broader context. These aliens are a fully developed metaphor for humanity’s fears of the unknown and how fear shapes geo­politics. If that sounds a little too heavy for a movie featuring creatures that look like a blend of squids and spiders, I promise that director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) rewards you for expending brainpower at the cinema.
Villeneuve and cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma) create an enthralling film. From the shape of the ships to the vast and isolating Montana backdrop, every shot is beautifully composed and styled. This world feels both familiar yet just alien enough to be unsettling. Expansive open areas contrast with cramped claustrophobic shots to ramp up tension.
The script by Eric Heisserer (Lights Out), based on a story by Ted Chiang, picks at the ideas of destiny, time, communication and our drive to create connections. Lots of deep concepts are suggested. Still, the two-hour running time constrains their development, and Heisserer must rely on contrivance to wrap up the story. Like the classic Twilight Zone episodes written by Ray Bradbury, Arrival is both liberated and constrained by its medium.
At the emotional core, Amy Adams is masterful. Her Louise is frightened but determined to make a connection. As she learns the alien language, she becomes more forceful. Banks discovers herself as she understands the aliens.
An emotionally provocative sci-fi film that stimulates and rewards, Arrival is worth the price you’ll pay to see it on the big screen, where Young’s cinematography will have the most impact.

Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch: Zoolander 2), the world’s most sought-after neurosurgeon, has an ego as big as his brain. He is smug and calculating, cold and talented.
But his talent means nothing after an accident cripples his hands.
Scorning the physical therapy recommended by intellectual inferiors, Strange spends all his money on experimental surgeries that leave him broke, alone and hopeless. He spends his last pound to fly to Nepal, chasing a miracle cure in a temple.
Strange finds a community following the mystical teachings of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton: Hail, Caesar!). He mocks their mysticism and the idea of channel energy from the universe — until the Ancient One literally knocks the soul from his body. Convinced, Strange applies his brilliant mind and dogged drive to learning every facet of the teachings, gobbling up ancient books and practicing at all hours.
Just as Strange is harnessing the powers of the universe, the attack comes. Former pupil Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen: Hannibal) wants to remake the world to suit his new beliefs.
Kaecilius’ attack leaves only Strange and his trainer Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor: Triple 9) to defend the universe from a madman and his team of zealots.
A mind-bending romp, Doctor Strange is, well, strange. That’s not to say the movie is without charm. Director Scott Derrickson (Deliver Us from Evil) eases us through confusing magical elements with slapstick comedy. Strange’s cape becomes a character, yanking the doctor around and doing silly things to distract the bad guys. Even baddie Kaecilius gets a few good punchlines. Mikkelsen, who’s strong bone structure and piercing eyes earn him parts as terrifying baddies in English-language films, has a bit of fun hamming up this villainous role.
Derrickson also wisely skews the film toward younger audiences.
This approach could devolve into puerile nonsense without a strong cast to keep it on the right side of ridiculous. Cumberbatch gives a charming performance, turning his prickly doctor into an endearing hero.
There are problems, as well. Like most superhero movies, the plot doesn’t bear deep thinking. More troublingly, the film borrows heavily from Chinese and Nepalese imagery but features only one Asian actor with a speaking part (Benedict Wong, who offers some of the film’s best comedic moments)
Though guilty of cultural appropriation, Doctor Strange should keep older viewers smiling and encourage younger viewers to attempt channeling the energy of the universe. If you’re looking for a popcorn flick for your whole clan, this film is strangely perfect.

There’s something wrong with Little (Alex R. Hibbert in his screen debut). His mama (Naomi Harris: Our Kind of Traitor) and the kids at school see it. He walks funny; he’s soft; he ain’t no man. Mama calls him names, and the boys at school chase and beat him. There is no place he feels safe.
With Juan (Mahershala Ali: Luke Cage), a local drug dealer, he finds acceptance. Juan teaches him that being a man is more than going hard and showing off. Being a man is knowing who you are. Juan and his girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe: Rio 2) offer Little the first safe space he’s ever known.
In high school, Little — now Ashton Sanders (The Skinny) — calls himself Chiron. But he’s still a pariah, still called gay and still tortured. Chiron also has a crush on the only boy in school who’s ever been nice to him. The attraction is clearly mutual, but consummation seems impossible.
Chiron tries to navigate his feelings, his neighborhood and what it means to be a gay black man in America. Will he crack under the pressure?
Beautifully acted, skillfully shot and heart-rendingly written, Moonlight is a powerful movie with important things to say about the perception of masculinity. Director Barry Jenkins uses his feature debut to examine the duality of male lives, exploring how they vacillate from hard swagger when trying to impress to genuine emotions and tenderness with loved ones. Even Juan, who preaches being true to oneself, is divided. On the streets, he’s all bravado and no nonsense. At home or with Little, he shows his nurturing side.
Characters are authentic. There is no Hollywood sheen on these streets, and motives may not be explained. It’s up to you to enter Chiron’s world.
The role of Chiron is divided among three actors: Hibbert in youth, Sanders as a teen and Trevante Rhodes (Westworld) as an adult. Their roles blend seamlessly into an epic portrayal of one man’s journey. Hibbert and Sanders both excel at Chiron’s fear and uncertainty, making him a timid, quiet boy always seeking someone to care. As an adult, Chiron becomes a parody of stereotypical black masculinity, blasting rap music, wearing grills and being the toughest guy on the block. Rhodes shows how hollow that existence feels.
Lyrical, emotionally heavy and full of commentary on race and gender, Moonlight is not a popcorn flick. This film requires you to think and dig deep to understand the mass of conflicts that make up the principle characters. If you’re willing to put in the sweat equity, you’ll see one of the best films of the year.

An historian specializing in the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz: The Light Between Oceans) becomes obsessed with people who deny the reality of that genocide.
Earning Lipstadt’s particular ire is historian David Irving (Timothy Spall: The Journey), a Hitler fan who claims the gas chambers of Auschwitz were made up. Irving is so offensive that Lipstadt decries his poor research and dubious motivations in her book on Holocaust deniers.
Having made a career of courting racists through the guise of “uncovering the truth Jews attempted to hide,” Irving is outraged and sues her for libel in the British courts.
The choice of court is important, for in British courts, the burden of proof is on the defendant. Thus to win, Lipstadt and her team of lawyers must prove that the Holocaust existed and that Irving perverted historic documents to claim it did not.
It’s not a quick process.
Experts pour over Irving’s writings and research for more than a year. While Lipstadt and her team are mired in facts, Irving takes to the airways, giving interviews and offering glib soundbites like “No holes, no Holocaust.”
The Jewish community in Britain worries that Irving’s insane but printable rantings will foster a new generation of neo-Nazis. Fearing that even a victory will be overshadowed by Irving’s media circus, they ask Lipstadt to settle the case before more damage is done.
Based on a true story, Denial is a fascinating legal drama about how far freedom of speech can be taken. Director Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin) frames the film as a legal battle, which can be interesting but has drawbacks. As the intricacies of British law are explained, we lose time with Lipstadt, who becomes a supporting player in her own story.
In fact, the spotlight falls, rather ironically, on Irving. Portrayed as an odious little man who sees nothing wrong with misogyny and casual racism, he is a bit of a mystery. At times, he seems almost comically self-deluded, spinning every loss or setback as a secret victory. One is never quite sure if David Irving is an evil genius or an intellectual gnat with a large vocabulary and a talent for media management. Spall plays his cagey insanity beautifully.
Weisz is excellent as the dogged Queens-born historian rankled that the British courts keep her from speaking, but sadly, she takes a backseat to this vile character.
Denial is a film about events, not people. The trial is fascinating, but the movie feels a bit hollow. I wish Jackson had instead explored the characters and what drove them to the court. From Lipstadt’s fiery refusal to kowtow to a bigot to Irving’s tone-deaf belief that history is on his side, these actions want to be understood. If only director Jackson had allowed their motives come out.
Still, in this election year, when outrageous statements are passed as truth, it is interesting to see a film that carefully proves that not all opinions are valid, no matter how loudly they’re shouted.

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck: Suicide Squad), a math genius with poor social skills and the ability to fire a .50-caliber round through a melon from a mile away, becomes the underworld’s top accountant. He works with cartels, the mafia, gunrunners and terrorists — whoever will pay his price. He comes in, looks at the books, finds any missing money and leaves.
It’s a good system until one client is unhappy with what Christian discovers. Now the target of a psychotic hitman (Jon Bernthal: Daredevil), Christian has to avoiding treasury agents while determining which of his clients is trying to kill him.
The Accountant is a character-driven thriller harkening back to the action movies of the late 1980s. Director Gavin O’Connor (Jane Got a Gun) crafts interesting circumstances for Wolff. Coincidences and obvious twists are okay so long as they engage the main character. Creative cinematography in the action sequences helps.
Key to it all is Christian Wolff. Affleck is in top form as a high-functioning man with autism who is part nerd, part action hero. Misunderstandings are played for humor, but Affleck and O’Connor make no jokes at Christian’s expense.
Backing up Affleck, veteran character actors Bernthal and J.K. Simmons (The Late Bloomer) help gloss over the plot holes and improbabilities.
If you’re a fan of character-driven action, The Accountant is well worth the ticket. An unbelievable plot is balanced by believable character work and unique cinematography to make a film that’s pure popcorn fare at its best.